A ‘digital trend’ is effectively a vison of where current technological innovations are taking us. Basically, by accumulating expertise, experience and knowledge, we can arrive at an educated prediction of what you and your clients should be preparing for in your quest to implement improved business strategies and gain a definite advantage over slower-acting competitors.

In Part 1, we explained how innovations including Blockchain, Digital Twins and Augmented Analytics can be utilised to help your clients be a leader when it comes to making the most of a digital transformation of their infrastructures. Here in Part 2 we focus on the benefits to be had from the latest trends such as Empowering the Edge, An Autonomous AI, Smart Spaces, Privacy and Ethics, and Quantum Computing.

You can easily accelerate your clients’ adoption of the new processes and technologies available by partnering with IBM, as we have all the technologies and services enabling a smooth transition.

Empowering the Edge

The Internet of Things (IoT) is gradually heading away from today’s centralised solutions to decentralisation, and organisations must not only prepare for this, but also be ready to turn it to their advantage.

IBM File Gateway is a scalable, secure, and always-on edge-based gateway that enables companies to consolidate file transfers and transact seamlessly on a single platform. It has the capabilities necessary to intelligently monitor, administer, route and transform high volumes of inbound and outbound files.

AI-enabled platforms, such as IBM Watson®, are bringing the benefits of cognitive learning abilities to evermore processes, vehicles, and machines. Once they have acquired AI, they are becoming increasingly capable of being linked, thereby enabling them to directly converse with each other and create a self-governing system.

Cars, for instance, will be able to get to know the preferences of their driver. For automakers, that means tapping into software and IoT services to deliver a range of customisable options that every buyer can align to their lifestyle—news, weather, sports, streaming music and video, games, social media, banking, retail and so on. In other areas, an intelligent warehouse system will know when a store’s stock of certain items are benefiting from increased demand, setting the relevant delivery machines into operation to ensure the shelves are never empty.

Data captured by buildings such as a shopping mall can be augmented by cognitive capabilities for use in IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management Systems) such as IBM TRIRIGA, transforming what could be an average retail environment into an interactive, sensing experience.

Even food services can benefit from IWMS by sensing preferences, automating orders, and supply chain processes, or managing space allocation in more flexible and dynamic ways.

In a world where employees are spending less time in the office and more time in alternative workplaces, a cognitive building strategy can enhance employee productivity up to 18% and increase facilities utilisation by up to 85%. As well as flexibly adapting to changing occupant needs, cognitive buildings can help companies reduce energy use by up to 50%.

We now have smart factories, smart cities, smart homes, where technology simplifies and enhances the living experience for anyone using them.

IBM TRIRIGA is an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), driven by IoT, analytics, and cognitive computing, such as provided by IBM Watson® IoT. Outfitting equipment with sensors results in enhanced diagnostic information, ensuing the smooth running of core systems including heating, elevators, escalators, air conditioning, and security.

Moreover, buildings and workplaces are massive generators and consumers of data. The capture and analysis of data enable organisations to gain deeper insights into operational effectiveness, accelerate their ability to react to change, and increase returns from decisions. For example, sensing repetitive conference room usage allows management to proactively pre-cool a room susceptible to over-heating.

Businesses are rapidly waking up to the need for chatbots and other self-service technology, but they often overlook important issues related to the morals and ethics of AI.

The privacy and protection of user data is paramount in today’s interconnected world, and regulations on data responsibility continually evolve. Customers need to know when they are communicating with a machine and not an actual human, while ownership of information shared with a bot can create intellectual property issues.

Organisations that collect, store, manage or process data have an obligation to handle it responsibly.

From our long history of pioneering AI technology, and the work we’re doing to help our clients apply it around the world, IBM have learned that these capabilities represent a positive transformative force for businesses, institutions, governments, and individuals. We’ve also learned that they must be developed in thoughtful and responsible ways.

We’re devoting our powerful engines of technological innovation to create the tools to protect our clients and global trade, as well as ensuring we strike the correct balance between security, privacy and freedom.

You probably already have a truly amazing amount of information stored on your digital systems.

Quantum computing will enable all of this information to be accessed, referred to, and compared all at the very same time.

It has the potential to provide breakthroughs in many disciplines, such as drug discovery, chemistry, physics, and the optimisation of complex systems.

IBM has several real quantum devices and simulators available for use through the cloud. These devices are accessed and used through Qiskit, an open source quantum software development kit, and IBM Q Experience, which offers a virtual interface for coding a quantum computer.

IBM Q is an industry first initiative to build universal quantum computers for business and science. Our cross-disciplinary team is developing scalable quantum systems as well as potential applications for the technology we’re making available today.

Surprisingly, most companies have yet to move beyond the scaling, experimentation and piloting stages of their proposed digital initiatives. In Part 2, we’ll discuss the advantages your clients can gain from making the most of Empowering the Edge, autonomous AI, Smart Spaces, Privacy and Ethics, and Quantum Computing.